Booking method and system

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed herein a method and system for communicating over a telecommunications network between a service provider and one or more users, wherein the service provider can have access to multiple distinct addresses in the telecommunications network and each user is identified by an address, more specifically where a first message can be sent over at least a portion of the telecommunications network to a user&#39;s address and based on a response from the user determining the message to which the response is a reply to.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telecommunications. In particular, theinvention relates to a method and system for booking a reservation in abooking system and synchronizing bookings in several booking systemscomprising at least one booking systems; involving at least one serviceprovider; a mediator service; a client, and at least one client terminaldevice that can be a mobile device and that includes a dialogue. Inaddition, the system comprises telecommunication connections that areused to connect the booking systems, the service providers, themediator, and the client terminal device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Services that are booked or used via the Internet are constantlyincreasing. The Internet enables one to use several on-line servicessuch as services connected to banks, health services, travel agencies,vehicle maintenance, and so on.

The increasing popularity of mobile computing and communications devicesintroduce new challenges to services on the Internet. Mobile terminalsare able to deliver information to users when needed and where needed.Users want ubiquitous access to information and applications from thedevice at hand. They also want to access and update this informationwherever they happen to be.

It is important to notice, however, that not all the terminals will bemobile. Future services must be able to communicate with a large varietyof terminal devices, both those that are mobile and those that are not.Different terminal devices have very different capabilities.

The interoperability of different services and terminal devices requiresstandards on several levels. It is not enough to have, say, commoncommunication protocols. It would be very important to share commonconcepts and understanding what a certain piece of data means in acertain context. However, it has been very difficult to agree on thoseissues, as there exist an enormous number of companies, organizations,and other actors in the field.

Many services must be able to manage bookings. They include for examplebooking appointments for health services; booking travel reservationsfor hotels, airlines, and rental cars; booking tickets for venues;booking appointments for vehicle maintenance; booking maintenance forapartments; and so on. It would be very useful, if those services couldget information from one another. For example, if a customer is bookingtickets for a concert, he or she might want to book a table in arestaurant also. It helps, if the restaurant's booking service getsbasic information, like date and customer's name from the theater'sbooking system. Unfortunately, there have not been methods to exchangeinformation between different kinds of booking systems.

There are many methods to exchange information between services.Speaking of services that include booking or calendar functions,information exchange often takes place as synchronizing booking orcalendar entries. For that purpose, several important standardizationefforts are going on. For example, SyncML is an industry initiative todevelop and promote a single, common data synchronization protocol.

vCalendar is an exchange format for personal scheduling information. Itis applicable to a wide variety of calendaring and scheduling productsand is useful in exchanging information across a broad range oftransport methods. A number of vendors have adopted the specificationbecause it allows their products to exchange calendaring and schedulinginformation. vCalendar is an open specification based on industrystandards such as the x/Open and XAPIA Calendaring and Scheduling API(CSA), the ISO 8601 international date and time standard and the relatedMIME email standards. The vCalendar format utilizes data normally storedwithin a calendaring and scheduling application, facilitating the crossplatform exchange of information about items such as events and to-do's.An event is a calendaring and scheduling entity that represents adesignated amount of time on a calendar. A to-do is a calendaring andscheduling entity that represents an action item or assignment. Forinstance, it may be an item of work assigned to an individual.

vCard automates the exchange of personal information typically found ona traditional business card. vCard is used in applications such asInternet mail, voice mail, Web browsers, telephony applications, callcenters, video conferencing, PIMs (Personal Information Managers), PDAs(Personal Data Assistants), pagers, fax, office equipment, and smartcards. In addition to text, vCard information may include elements likepictures, company logos, live Web addresses, and so on.

As these examples show, there have been lots of efforts to build systemsthat can synchronize booking systems. A common problem with all of theseexisting solutions is that they do not provide common semantics fordifferent systems. For example, if an entry is tentative, differentsystems may interpret it in different ways.

Another problem is that booking systems have multiple different andusually quite complex user interfaces. If a customer wants to both makean appointment with a dentist and book a taxi to take him or her there,the customer needs to enter all the booking information to both bookingsystems in different ways.

One more problem is that it becomes challenging to manage clientreplies, if a client has been given a number of questions. For example,it makes sense to use SMS text messages to ask client which option he orshe chooses, because in many countries, like in Finland, it is verycommon to communicate with SMS text messages and they create revenues tooperators. However, if a client replies to several inquires by sending anumber of text messages, it can be troublesome to find out, which answercorresponds to a certain question because the reply does notautomatically include a reference to the question. Say, a service asks aclient if he or she wants to reserve—in addition to a flight ticket—alsoa taxi and a hotel room, and the client replies “yes” to one questionbut “no” to the other, the service does not necessarily know which offerthe client has accepted.

OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the invention is to eliminate the drawbacks referredabove or at least significantly alleviate them. The invention enablesnew kind of value adding services that are essential especially formobile services.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and systemcapable of making booking type transactions involving at least oneservice provider and a plurality of users who are each communicatingwith a mobile telephone capable of receiving and sending short textmessages.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and systemcapable of making booking type transactions between a plurality ofservice providers and a plurality of users who are each communicatingwith a mobile telephone capable of receiving and sending short textmessages.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following section, the invention will be described in detail bythe aid of a few examples of its embodiments, in which

FIG. 1 represents one advantageous system in accordance with theinvention;

FIG. 2 represents a second advantageous system in accordance with theinvention;

FIG. 3 represents a third advantageous system in accordance with theinvention;

FIG. 4 is one advantageous example of a sequence diagram representingmessages transmitted within a system in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 5 is a second advantageous example of a sequence diagramrepresenting messages transmitted within a system in accordance with theinvention.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the dynamic dialog matrix applied to a queryand reply according to the invention.

FIG. 7 shows the phases of the booking process in a preferred embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 8 shows a matrix diagram corresponding to Example 2, according to apreferred embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to exchanging and synchronizing informationbetween booking systems and user terminal devices. The services may befor example booking appointments for health services; booking travelreservations for hotels, airlines, and rental cars; booking tickets forvenues; booking appointments for vehicle maintenance; bookingmaintenance for apartments; and so on.

The booking system in accordance with the invention comprises at leastone service provider booking system; at least one service provider; amediator; a client; at least one client terminal device that can be amobile device capable of receiving text messages, and that includes adialogue; and telecommunication connections that are used to connect theservice provider booking systems, the service providers, the mediatorand the client terminal device to one another.

The service providers are those with whom clients want to makeappointments, reservations, or other bookings and comprise the resourcesfor the booking system to allocate. Service providers conduct businessthrough service provider booking services. As used in this application,the mediator is a network based service available to the serviceprovider booking services over the network that provides additionalsemantics, translation and synchronization services needed forcommunication of the information needed for a client to complete atransaction with a service provider. The service provider bookingservices and the mediator are preferably applications operating onnetwork servers such as the Internet or a private Intranet. In general,a system will comprise a plurality of service providers and serviceprovider booking systems (implementing service provider bookingservices), but it is possible to have a simple booking system for onlyone service provider in which case the mediator and service providercould be tightly integrated into a single application.

Clients preferably include clients communicating on mobile telephonescapable of receiving short text messages, such as Short Message Service(SMS) messages. Of course, a system that is capable of handling SMSmessages will also handle other clients with greater capabilities. Themediator preferably communicates with mobile telephone clients throughan SMS gateway, such as are operated by mobile telephone providers and awell known today. The mediator communicates with clients usingdialogues. Dialogues are short messages which present information to theclient and allow a simple reply. Dialogues preferably provide users withsimple choices such as yes/no or to allow a selection from an orderedlist. Dialogues can also be one way, such as to acknowledge areservation. A transaction may typically involve a sequence of dialogueseach involving a simple response. Dialogues involve asynchronouscommunication by messages. The system as described makes it possible tocoordinate bookings among different service provider systems in order tofill a clients need, for example coordination of an airline booking withtransportation to the airport.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the simplest system comprising a single serviceprovider booking system 100 for a single service provider, a mediator102 communicating with the service provider over a network, and a userwith a mobile phone having a dialogue entered thereon.

FIG. 2 shows a plurality of service provider booking systemscommunicating with a mediator over a network.

FIG. 3 shows a mediator named BookIT communicating with various serviceprovider systems and users with telephone devices communicatingdialogues.

A reason based customer dialogue is a desirable improvement from theclient's point of view, because service providers can create their owndialogues in connection with each booking event. A dialogue is closelyrelated to a certain booking situation. It becomes active automaticallyat the right moment, or the client can activate the dialogue as needed,or another entity in the system can send a message to the dialogue toactivate it. The dialogue then sends an inquiry to another entity in thesystem or informs the client and possibly inquires client's choices. Bymeans of this kind of dialogue, the client can make reservations inseveral booking systems using only one user interface. The dialogueconnects to remote booking systems e.g. through the Internet or evenmobile networks.

A mediator service can be capable of transmitting booking informationbetween service provider booking systems. For example, after a bookingis entered into an airline booking system, a taxi booking system canoffer the client a lift to the airport. In this application, a bookingis an allocation of a single resource (either the airline booking or thetaxi in the previous example), while a reservation is the union of thebookings for all of the resources for the same event (the airlinebooking plus the taxi booking in the previous example). The dialoguebetween the client, the mediator and the booking systems as well asstored customer profiles ensure that the client gets the reason basedservice he or she needs, not intrusive advertising.

A client can make reservations as well as confirm, change, and cancelthem using many kinds of communication means, including but not limitedto the Internet, e-mail, and mobile terminals. The client can alsosynchronize a calendar provided by the mediator or a service providerwith a calendar in a terminal device using mediator's synchronizationfunctions.

A service provider can remind clients to make reservations on a regularbasis and thus increase customer loyalty. A mediator can help serviceproviders to bring their booking systems together to provide morecomprehensive services without extending their businesses unnecessarily.Because of internationalization, the mediator is able to support forexample many languages, time zones, currencies, and data formats.

The system, including at least a dialogue, a mediator, a serviceprovider, and a service provider booking system, can be on one of thefollowing levels:

-   1. There is a predetermined set of dialogues in the system. Their    content and the possible choices are set in advance. For example, if    a client books a flight, a dialogue always offers certain other    bookings. Client's prior actions are not taken into consideration.-   2. There is an unlimited number of dynamic or “intelligent”    dialogues that are based on, for instance, a profile that a client    has created himself or herself, usage history records, and client's    location. Simple logic supports decisions. It is a low-level expert    system.-   3. The system is able to make decisions by itself and to support    client's decision making. On this level, a dialogue may include a    high-level expert system. It can act as an agent and negotiate with    several service providers to get the best offer without client's    direct involvement.

In one preferred embodiment of the method, a client books a service froma service provider. The booking may be carried out using a terminal thatis connected to the mediator service. First, the client connects to themediator service using a dialogue. The client inputs reservation inquiryto the dialogue that sends the inquiry to the mediator. The mediatorinquires possible reservations from service provider's informationsystem using concepts and terminology that those services are able tointerpret. The inquiry is based on client's preferences. The clientdiscloses some preferences that are related to the specific booking whenhe or she inputs reservation inquiry to the dialogue. In addition, thedialogue and the mediator service may have stored client's generalpreferences and use them so that the client do not need to input all thepreferences each time.

Managing the inquiry and bookings is based on sophisticated statemodels. Each booking involves several phases that are described bystates that track its status through its life cycle. For example, whenthe mediator has inquired about a reservation from a service provider,the corresponding entry in each system has a state that the booking ispending but not confirmed. If the systems do not have commonunderstanding what a certain state means, the mediator translates them.A preferred booking process including the phases and states is describedin Example 1.

In addition to inquiring reservations from the service provider, themediator is able to synchronize bookings in several service providers'systems. The synchronization is based on rules specified in the mediatorservice. For example, a rule can be that “if a client inquires bookingfor an airline ticket, inquire also bookings for taxis to the airport.”Therefore, an inquiry from the client may be multiplied in the mediatorservice resulting a number of inquiries. The service providers answer tothe mediator if they are able to provide requested service and they mayadd some additional information, like on seats or timing. The mediatorcombines gathered information and sends it to the dialogue that shows asimple list of options to the client. For example, the dialogue may showthree options for a flight and ask if the client also wants to reserve ataxi that is actually already tentatively booked by the mediator. Theclient makes his or her decision by choosing the options from the simplelist of alternatives. The dialogue sends information on client's choiceto the mediator that confirms the bookings in accordance with client'schoices and cancels the unnecessary reservations.

FIG. 4 shows a sequence diagram of an inquiry CINQ1 originated by aclient using a dialogue DINQ1 sent to the mediator. The mediatorinitiates the inquiry MINQ1 which corresponds to CINQ1 and DINQ1 tobooking system 1 a service provider booking system. Ultimately an answerDANS1 gets back to the client offering a choice which is responded towith a selection CSEL1 resulting in a booking by the client on bookingsystem 1. The mediator recognizes the potential need for a complementaryservice from booking service 2 and initiates an inquiry, MINQ2, tobooking system 2, which ultimately results in a proposal includingseveral choices, DANS2, returned to the client from which a selection,CSEL2, is made, resulting in a complementary booking on booking system2.

The bookings can be done in other means as well, for instance, bycalling the service provider with a telephone or by visiting on site theservice provider's office. In that case the service provider may informthe mediator about client's bookings so that the mediator can inform theclient on other options. For example, a dentist could tell the mediatorthat the client has booked an appointment so that the mediator may offerto book a taxi also.

Also, it is possible to add a reminder to the mediator service so thatthe mediator asks at certain time if the client wants to make a newbooking. For instance, the mediator can send a notice to the client thatit has been a year since the client last had an appointment with his orher dentist and ask if the client wants to make a new appointment. Thisnotice can already include a few options for the appointment. Themediator has checked the client's calendar if he or she has allowed thatso that the given options are convenient for the client. The dialogueshows the options in a simple and handy way. The client needs only tochoose which option is the best for him or her or whether he or shewants to get new options or postpone the booking. FIG. 5 is a timesequence chart for such a situation where the original inquiry, MINQ1,was initiated by the mediator.

Example 1 A Preferred Booking System

A preferred booking system according to the invention, is describedbelow in terms of a system named BookIt.

BookIT is designed to interface between service provider booking systemsand other parties over a network such as the Internet, and to end userclients equipped with mobile phones capable of receiving text messages.The former is preferably accomplished with a generic XML interface.BookIT supports vCard and vCalendar standards since they are used by allmajor booking and calendar systems.

BookIT communicates with mobile phone users using Short Message Service(SMS) via an SMS Gateway for asynchronous communication. BookIT uses thenovel Dynamic Dialogue Matrix (DDM) for secure transfer and mapping ofthe SMS messages. The DDM is described further below.

A clear distinction needs to be made between a service provider bookingprocess and BookIT Process. The former covers the standard booking onlywith time and resource reservation. The latter consists of booking,work, and financing. Both processes end to the same point. The BookITProcess consists of seven phases as follows:

Phases (Status Handling)

The phases make a bond (rubber band) between the resources. In each ofthe BookIT Process' phases the data related to the booking will beamended to reflect the needs of the phase in question. For the statusesand values please see the underneath table.

The phases are described in more detail in the following discussion.

1. Filing

Filing means initialization of a BookIT Process and a booking process.As a result of the initialization an entry is inserted in the databasew/basic information. It will not appear in a calendar since there is noscheduling information. It can be displayed in a separate task list ofthe owner as an open task.

2. Requesting

In the Requesting phase a booking request is sent to the resourcesrequired for the previously filed task. Since there is no scheduling,which in most cases will be essential, this phase may be executedtogether with the Scheduling phase.

3. Scheduling

Schedule is given to the owner and the resources. As a part and a resultof the Scheduling the following data is needed:

-   a suggested start-time (ISO time-stamp w/time zone)-   b suggested start-location (coordinates)-   c suggested end-time (ISO time-stamp w/time zone)-   d suggested end-location (coordinates)

4. Confirming

Time and location as it is accepted by the resources that have accepted.Data related to this phase:

-   a accepted start-time (ISO time-stamp w/time zone)-   b accepted start-location (coordinates)-   c accepted end-time (ISO time-stamp w/time zone)-   d accepted end-location (coordinates)

By default the data is copied from the Planning phase.

In practice, if planned time is not needed, the same data structures canbe used for this and status indicates the actual meaning of the data.

5. Working

The resources perform the booked task. Data related to this phaseconsists of different attributes and their values, which are related tothe actual task. In addition, following static structures are needed:

-   a actual start-time (ISO time-stamp w/time zone)-   b actual start-location (coordinates)-   c actual end-time (ISO time-stamp w/time zone)-   d actual end-location (coordinates)-   e products used, extras, mileage,

By default the data is copied from the Confirming phase.

6. Accounting

At this point all data stored in the data structures on previous phasesis analyzed and processed for invoicing purposes.

Data related to this phase: Accounting data. To be defined separately.

7. Completing

The task has been completed. From the whole

BookIT process point of view it is irrelevant whether the task succeededor not. It is relevant to the Accounting phase, in which the financialactions to the organizer are handled. In this phase, housekeeping(database contents; temporary files, . . . ) is made in order tocomplete the BookIT Process.

The following table shows data available in each phase. Booking phase isin italics.

Filing X X Requesting X X X Scheduling X X X X Confirming X X X X XWorking X X X X X X Accounting X X X X X X Completing X X X X X X XPhase/Data Identi- Resources Sugges- Accep- Task's Accounting Closingfying ted time ted time work related

Phase Statuses, Values, and Transitions

The following table describes the phases, their statuses, and valuesalong with transition to next logical phase based on the values gotten.In addition, corresponding vCalendar statuses are shown when applicable.

Phase Satus Next Phase vEvent vTodo Filing Requesting RequestingScheduling Sent Sent Scheduling Pending Confirming Needs action Needsaction Scheduling Scheduled Confirming Needs action Needs actionScheduling Re-scheduled Confirming Needs action Needs action ConfirmingAccepted Working Confirmed Accepted Confirming Declined AccountingDeclined Declined Confirming Tentative Accounting Tentative ConfirmingDelegated Requesting Delegated Delegated Confirming Re-schedulingAccounting requested or Scheduling Confirming InProgress Working WorkingInProgress Working Working Delayed Working Working Started WorkingWorking n % ready Working Working Ready Accounting Accounting CompletingCompleting <Copied from n/a phase before Accounting>

Internal phases Paused, Re-started, and Canceled act as follows for allrelevant phases at any point:

<Phase y> Paused <Status x> <Phase y> Re-started <Status x> <Phase y>Cancelled Accounting

FIG. 6 shows the work flow transitions from phase to phase. Forconditions, see the table above. Also, please note that Canceled Statusalways leads to Accounting.

Confirming the (Whole) Reservation

In order for the whole Reservation to be successful, all resources,which accepted the reservation, need to have the same scheduling. Inaddition, there will resources in different roles and data related tothe working phase may vary even greatly.

The different statuses of the whole reservation are:

-   a “NoReplies” (0) for “No-one hasn't replied to the request made by    the organizer”-   b “NoDeclines” (1) for “Not all invitees have replied yet. The ones    who have replied have accepted”-   c “AllAccepts” (2) for “all invitees have confirmed”-   d “SomeDeclines” (3) for “Some of the invitees have declined”-   e “AliDeclines” (4) for “All of the invitees have declined”.

The following decision table helps in evaluating the status of the wholebooking. “Maybe” means that this condition only does not incontestablyspecify true or false result.

Booking Status\ No one No one Some All No one Some All Confirmationsanswered accepted Accepted accepted declined declined declined NoRepliesTrue Maybe Maybe NoDeclines True Maybe Maybe True True NoAccepts TrueTrue Maybe Maybe True AllAccepts True True Maybe SomeAccepts True MaybeMaybe Maybe AllDeclines Maybe True SomeDeclines Maybe Maybe True Maybe

Based on the information and decision table above theorganizer/application has to make the decision of what to do with thereservation. That can be an automatic decision made by the system basedon pre-set rules or made by the organizer manually.

One major problem solved by the invention is the challenge of managingclient replies, when a client has been given a number of questions andthe client is using SMS text messages or similar technology in which areply does not automatically include an explicit reference to theinquiry. The invention solves this problem using dynamic dialogmatrices. An inquiry always includes some kind of receiver's address oridentification. In the SMS text message case that is so called Bsubscriber's number. On the other hand, sender's A subscriber's numberor Calling Line Identity (CLI), or similar identification is alsoattached to each text message. Therefore the client or B subscriber isusually easily able to answer a message using mobile device's answer orreply function. If a mediator service that sends inquiries to a client,uses different A subscriber numbers in different inquires, it ispossible to differentiate between answers based on which number theclient is sending replies to. For example, if a mediator sends a clientan inquiry “Do you need a taxi also?” using A subscriber number A1 andthen inquiries “Do you need a hotel room?” from A subscriber number A2,client's reply to the first question goes to number A1 and the secondanswer goes to number A2. Using a dialog matrix, a mediator keeps trackon inquires and answers. In the matrix, there is a column for eachclient and a row for each A subscriber number the mediator is using.Obviously, there could be a row for each client and correspondingly acolumn for each A subscriber number as well. After sending an inquiryfrom a certain A subscriber number to a client, the status and the replyis stored in the corresponding shell of the matrix. As a result, themediator is able to find out whether the client has replied to a certaininquiry and what the answer was. Also, it is possible to use the matrixto collect information about clients' behavior and use it for examplefor marketing purposes. A mediator needs only a limited number of Asubscriber numbers. A dialog matrix can also be used to find out which Asubscriber numbers can be used when the next inquiry to a certain clientis sent.

The use of the Dynamic Dialog Matrix as described above is illustratedin FIG. 7.

The Dynamic Dialog Matrix is also a powerful but very simple securitymeasure for authenticating a mobile phone user who has only thecapability of sending and receiving messages. The problem is for aservice to confirm a sender's identity. One way to try to identify theuser is to check the sender's address. Normally SMS, e-mail, and otheralike messages have the sender's address attached. That address can befor example the sender's A-subscriber's number or Calling Line Identity(CLI), or e-mail address or IP address. However, it is quite easy tofalsify a sender address. From the service provider's perspective, thedownlink from a service provider to a user is usually relativelyreliable and it is hard for others to capture or change messages, butthe uplink from a user to a service provider is much more vulnerable andit is not too difficult to give a wrong sender's address. A well-knownsolution to the above problem is to use encryption technologies tosecure the communications, public-key infrastructures (PKI) being goodexamples. For instance, a user device can be equipped with a microchip,a secure SIM card in GSM devices for example, to encrypt messages usingthe user's private key. Then the service provider can be sure that themessage is from the user, if it can be decrypted using the user's publickey. However, this solution requires special devices that are not verycommon, inexpensive, or standardized so far. Relying on such a solutionrestricts the number of potential users significantly.

Using the DDM provides a novel solution. When the service sends arequest to the mobile phone user, each request contains a different,preferably randomly chosen, reply number. Thus an acceptable answer isonly the one that is sent to the correct reply address.

Example 2 Use of the Dynamic Dialogue Matrix

This simple example deals with securing tickets on a morning flighttomorrow. The system sends a series of questions as SMS messagesrequiring a short response. Each message is earmarked so that itsresponse can be identified so the messages need not necessarily be sentor replied to in a particular sequence unless logic so demands (forinstance, if the answer to one question affects the content of the nextquestion).

A user whose phone number is ID=0418 979 813 has requested the ticket.The system sends the following requests as individual SMS messages:

Please choose one of the following departure times:

-   -   6:00 a.m., answer A    -   7:30 a.m., answer B    -   8:15 a.m., answer C.    -   If none of these is OK, answer D.    -   Sender: +358440844 027

Please choose ticket class:

-   -   First class, answer A    -   Business class, answer B    -   Economy class, answer C    -   Cheapest available, answer D    -   Sender: +358440844 011

Please choose:

-   -   Window seat, answer A    -   Aisle seat, answer C    -   Sender: +358440844 034

Please select the meal:

-   -   Vegetarian, answer A    -   Beef, answer B    -   Chicken, answer C    -   Sender: +358440844 003

The answers received from the customer to the preceding questions andseveral others were as follows:

-   -   ‘A’ to question with ref. no +358 440 844 027    -   ‘D’ to question with ref. no +358 440 844 011    -   ‘A’ to question with ref. no +358 440 844 034    -   ‘B’ to question with ref. no +358 440 844 003    -   ‘D’ to question with ref. no +358 440 859 751    -   ‘A’ to question with ref. no +358 440 844 277    -   ‘C’ to question with ref. no +358 440 841 368

From this, the service provider can find out that the customer chose:

-   -   the first morning flight (=A),    -   cheapest available ticket (=D),    -   window seat (=A),    -   beef for meal (=B),        and etc.

It is important to note with the matrix the customer can answer thequestions in any order, and can even fail to answer some questions. Ifthese are relevant, the system can urge for an answer. If not, thesystem can proceed without this information.

The above responses are shown on FIG. 8 as a three dimensional matrixwith customer numbers plotted on the X-axis, reply numbers are plottedon the Y-axis and answers plotted on the Z-axis. Our user with phonenumber 0418 979 813 is the left most user along the X-axis. The answersare plotted along the Z-axis corresponding to the reply numbers on theY-axis.

Additional security can be achieved using semantic analysis. In thematrix shells, there can be information about the inquiry and what kindsof answers are acceptable. If an answer does not meet the criteria, itis rejected. For example, if the service provider asks the user to tellhow many items are ordered, and the user answers “yes”, then apparentlythe user did not know what the question was and the message was not ananswer for the inquiry.

It is also possible that the service provider is actually a mediator andthe “real” service provider is somewhere else. In that case, only themediator needs to have the matrix-based system and the actual serviceprovider communicates with the mediator using either the mediator'smatrix-system or other secure means like a crypto-channel. For example,a car sharing system could be implemented in the following way: cars arelocated randomly around a city. When a user needs a car, he or she sendsa message to a mediator to ask where the nearest car is. The mediatorsends a message telling the car's location. That reply comes from arandom address y′. When the user reaches the car, he or she sends amessage to y′ telling that the rental period begins and asking themediator to remotely release the car's locks. This message is relativelyreliable, because it is sent to the address that the user only knows.Therefore it constitutes a valid reason to release the locks and startbilling. The communication between mediator and the car, on the otherhand, is invisible to the user and outsiders. The car can be equippedwith special devices and therefore remote commands to release the locksetc. can be encrypted. Or, the communication between the car and themediator could also be implemented using matrices. In either case, themediator operates as a “firewall” between the user and the car disablingoutsiders from unauthorized usage.

Although the present invention has been described in considerable detailwith reference to certain preferred versions thereof, other versions arepossible. Therefore the spirit and scope of the appended claims shouldnot be limited to the preferred versions herein.

1. A mediator that controls communications of messages between a serviceprovider having at least a first reply address and a client terminaldevice having a client identifier address, the mediator being configuredto; for each sent message from the service provider, store at least twopieces of information selected from; the content of the message, thereply address and the client identifier address, for each receivedmessage from the client identifier address by one of the differentaddresses, store at least the address the message was received by or thecontent of the message, and determining the sent message to which eachreceived message is a reply to based on the stored information.
 2. Amediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein said service provider has aplurality of distinct reply addresses.
 3. A mediator in accordance withclaim 1, wherein received messages do not include an explicit referenceto the sent message which it is a reply to.
 4. A mediator in accordancewith claim 3, wherein determining the sent message to which eachreceived message is a reply to is based solely on the stored informationselected from the content of the sent message, the reply address of thesent message, the client identifier address and the content of thereceived message.
 5. A mediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein atleast one of the reply address is associated with a single message anddetermining the sent message to which each received message is a replyto includes determining the address that the received message wasreceived at.
 6. A mediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein at leastone sent message is an inquiry having a predetermined number ofresponses and determining the sent message to which each receivedmessage is a reply to includes determining if a portion of the contentof the received message matches one of said responses.
 7. A mediator inaccordance with claim 6, wherein each response is a unique response andwherein the sent message is determined by determining if the content ofthe received message matches a unique response.
 8. A mediator inaccordance with claim 7, wherein at least some of the responses aresingle alphanumeric characters.
 9. A mediator in accordance with claim6, wherein at least some of the responses are ‘y’ and ‘n’.
 10. Amediator in accordance with claim 6, wherein determining the sentmessage to which each received message is a reply to further includesdetermining the address that the received message was received at
 11. Amediator in accordance with claim 10, wherein at least one reply addresshas associated with it at least two separate inquiry messages, eachinquiry message has associated with it at least one response and none ofthe inquiries for a single reply address share a response.
 12. Amediator that controls communications of messages between a serviceprovider having a at least one reply address and a client terminaldevice having a client identifier address, the mediator comprising astorage medium and a processor, the processor being configured to; foreach sent message from the service provider, store in the storage mediumat least two pieces of information selected from; the content of themessage, the reply address and the client identifier address, for eachreceived message from the client identifier address by one of thedifferent addresses, store in the storage medium at least the addressthe message was received by or the content of the message, anddetermining the sent message to which each received message is a replyto based on the stored information.
 13. A mediator in accordance withclaim 12, wherein said storage medium comprises a database in which saidinformation is stored.
 14. A mediator in accordance with claim 13,wherein said database is a dynamic dialogue matrix.
 15. A mediator inaccordance with claim 12, further comprising a computer readable storagemedium having stored thereon a computer readable program executable bysaid processor for performing the functions of said processor.
 16. Acomputer program product comprising a recording medium, having encodedthereon a computer readable program executable by a computer, forperforming the functions of a mediator for controlling communicationsbetween a service provider and a client terminal device having a clientidentifier, the mediator functions comprising; for each sent messagefrom the service provider, store at least two pieces of informationselected from; the content of the message, the reply address and theclient identifier address, for each received message from the clientidentifier address by one of the different addresses, store at least theaddress the message was received by or the content of the message, anddetermining the sent message to which each received message is a replyto based on the stored information.
 17. A computer program product inaccordance with claim 16, wherein no received message includes anexplicit reference to the sent message which it is a reply to.
 18. Acomputer program product in accordance with claim 17, whereindetermining the sent message to which each received message is a replyto is based solely on the stored information selected from the contentof the sent message, the reply address of the sent message, the clientidentifier address and the content of the received message.
 19. Acomputer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein at leastone sent message is an inquiry having a predetermined number ofresponses and determining the sent message to which each receivedmessage is a reply to includes determining if a portion of the contentof the received message matches one of said responses.
 20. A computerprogram product in accordance with claim 19, wherein determining thesent message to which each received message is a reply to furtherincludes determining the address that the received message was receivedat.